www.eatlocalchallenge.com

The 100-Mile Pie, Well, Almost

by Expat Chef

Just when I thought the Eat Local Challenge was over, I got an email from our local paper’s food editor. I had offered any assistance from our eatlocalchallenge.com site, if needed, and I also wanted to compliment her on the eating local series of articles that were recently published. They were great articles, just what you would expect from a food section that had won a James Beard award. She inquired what local foods would be part of my Thanksgiving. I told her I planned on creating a sweet potato pie recipe.

The Beet Goes On

by Expat Chef

Finally. The Beet War has been won. I made my decisive victory in a moment of recipe inspiration while planting the herbs from last weekend’s trip to the Farmers’ Market. The following Roasted Beets with Mixed Herbs and Shallot dish that I dreamed up has converted my spouse from Beet Phobe to Beet Fan. He ate more in a single sitting than had in his previous lifetime.

“Oh, great,” he says, “now that I like them, they are nearly out of season.”

True. What is it with humans that we only appreciate something fully when we can’t have it? But, this is not such a bad thing. It is the waiting that makes the heart grow fonder. That particular fruit or veggieˆs long-awaited arrival the next spring in its peak of ripeness is something akin to a little Christmas morning for the taste buds.

Cornbread, biscuits, and cheese grits

by Jamie S.

Welcome to my world.

Let's be honest: This is no Vermont. Have you ever noticed how many organic, small-farmed, value-added products originate in Vermont? I think we in the South need to do what the railroads did in the mid-1800s: recruit by all means necessary. We need to paper New England with flyers describing what an idyllic, easy life can be had amongst central Georgia's granite quarries and pine tree plantations. Just show up, bring your chevre and your micro-greens with you, and we'll give you 40 acres and a mule.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. But we do have to do a little more digging to find small local producers. Their wares aren't found in most grocery stores, but the producers are out there. And one of the things our local producers do best is grist milling.

Living Large, and Local, for Lunch

by Holly

The days are already getting pretty darn long, here in Portland. I guess we're only about a month from Solstice, difficult though that is to believe. We've been talking about how nice the long evenings are because you can really do something with them. Often that's cooking, but it's nice to be able to take a ride, or work on bike maintenance, or make some pottery. So we've been trying out having lunch as our big meal, and having a simpler dinner. Fortunately, we work at home, so we can make lunch a bit of a production. This was a recent effort that stands out for its local flavors.

The Box

By VI

Spring CSA - Week 6

My friend, David "the Hat" Hammond told me the other day, as we went to Vie, a restaurant specializing in local food, that he would eat local if he lived in Sonoma.  It's something I and others hear a lot.  We could eat local if...especially if we lived in California.

Now, I cannot speak to the rest of the USA, but I can say that in the Chicago area, there are more resources than imagined.  Paul Virant at Vie explained to us all the ways he got local produce from fall through spring.  And I got my way, the off-season CSAs offered by Farmer Vicki.

Incredible Edibles

by Liz

No matter where in the country you live, local eggs are in abundance in May.  As a natural part of their cycle of fertility, chickens raised in small flocks without supplemental light will lay more eggs in the spring than in the dark of winter, making eggs a truly seasonal food.

Eggs are a relatively inexpensive item -- around here, local, organic ones go for about $3 a dozen, duck eggs slightly more.  I've heard of people in other states that will gladly pay $6 a dozen for high quality local eggs, the argument being that even at 50¢ per egg, it still makes for an economical meal.  I truly believe that the egg is one of nature's perfect foods, which is why my springtime meal planning revolves heavily around eggs in its various forms, one of which is the frittata.

Make Your Own Sourdough Starter

by Claire Tompkins

The recipe I'm going to give for sourdough starter is not any better or different than what you may already have read. But I want to give the instructions as pared down and simply as possible so you can see how easy it is and have no reason not to try it!  Follow these nine steps:

1. Get a big jar with a wide mouth. I use a 32 ounce pickle jar.
2. Mix a cup of flour and a cup of water in the jar. I use a wooden spoon; metal can be reactive.
3. Cover the jar with a few layers of cheesecloth secured with a rubber band.

The Box

Spring CSA Week 5

We did not subscribe to the spring CSA from Farmer Vicki in anticipation of the May Eat Local Challenge, but having the CSA surely makes the challenge that much easier.  In the Chicago area, it will still be a few weeks before the first farmer's markets open.  Vicki, however, using greenhouse technology provides me and her subscribers with a big box of produce each week.  And because of the greenhouse, our box includes, of all things in early May (for this part of the world), zucchini.

It's Too Late

by VI

May 1.  I begin the challenge with a pot of Colombian coffee (not even fair trade I sadly confess).  While I do lighten the coffee with milk that is roughly local, I realize the May Challenge is a failure. 

OK, it's not a failure, and it's hardly even started, but it's not the coffee I am worried about.  The problem is, to a large extent, that you cannot just jump into eating local.  Let's skip all the stuff about potsum vs. coffee or lard vs. olive oil or beer vs. wine--short term decisions on the challenge aspect of the challenge.  I'm talking about the need to be prepared, to plan, to look at the big(ger) picture.

The Box

by VI 

Spring CSA Week 4

[Note, my family has subscribed to a Spring CSA offered by a local Illinois farm called Genesis Growers --owned by "Farmer Vicki".  This CSA started in April and relies on greenhouses to get a head start on the growing season.] 

Farmer Vicki noted in her weekly e-mail that her spring greenhouse crops were not coming in so well.

"We have been having problems with one greenhouse in that the crops are not all getting ready at the same time.  It is frustrating, but so far I have not figured out why.  The only clue I have is that we did a poor job spreading the composted manure.  In some places it is thick and others, thin.  In this case, though I have been a poor diagnostician."